The Knoxville City Council approved over a dozen mid-year budget amendments Tuesday night, taking a step closer to funding a “low barrier” night shelter for the city’s homeless.

The funding comes in the midst of residents from city areas, both north and south, complaining of the city’s homeless population moving to those neighborhoods after the city closed the space underneath the Broadway bridge and turned it into a “day park." Before the change, dozens of the homeless population would gather there.

$245,000 set for overnight shelter

The council agreed, on first reading, to give $245,000 to Volunteer Ministry Center. The center will use the money to renovate and furnish the former Salvation Army thrift store on Broadway directly adjacent to the "day park" to serve as an emergency shelter for the city’s homeless.

The council will have to approve the funding a second time, at the March 26 meeting, for the money to be secured.

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The Salvation Army Thrift Store located on North Broadway in Knoxville.(Photo: BRIANNA PACIORKA/NEWS SENTINEL)

The shelter, named The Foyer because it will usher people off the street into a home, is intended to have few limitations on who can use it. It will serve individuals who are not able or willing to access existing emergency shelter options, VMC CEO Bruce Spangler said Wednesday.

Individuals using the space will need a referral form from an outreach worker to spend the night, he said, because VMC doesn't intend to compete with other facilities in the area.

Rather, it's hoping to supplement and help individuals find housing.

During the day, the space will be focused on connecting people with housing. At night it will be a place to sleep, with approximately 48 beds planned. There will be restrooms and showers plus office space for VMC employees, according to plans.

The space is expected to be opened by end of summer or early fall, Spangler said.

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Bruce Spangler, the CEO of Volunteer Ministry Center, speaks in the Knoxville Convention Center during a VMC event on Wednesday, April 12, 2017.(Photo: CAITIE MCMEKIN/NEWS SENTINEL)

More money approved for 'day park'

The city of Knoxville spent roughly $190,000 a year for several years cleaning up the homeless encampments under the Broadway bridge. To make the area safer, more accessible and to save money, the city’s Office on Homelessness helped to turn a portion of the underpass into a homeless “day park” for roughly $200,000 last year.

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The City of Knoxville transformed a homeless camp situated under an interstate overpass along Broadway into a day park late last year.(Photo: Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel )

As part of the mid-year budget amendments, the city approved another $95,000 for the space to help pay for security services.

The 20,000-square-foot designated “low barrier” space opened in December and allows people to access basic amenities like bathrooms, electricity, water and picnic tables. It is open daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The space is staffed with security and at least two social workers.

The stated goal from the city was to make the space under the bridge safer and help usher its inhabitants into shelters in the long term.

Spangler said the space was needed and the city's actions just happened to coincide with VMC's desire to open a shelter.

“I have seen it to be a positive thing, in just that the environment itself was totally unsafe and unhealthy and something had to be done for those folks there," he said.

Old Gray Cemetery director Ruthie Kuhlman said the city's new homeless day camp has fanned out the city's homeless population and, as a result, she has seen increased desecration at the cemetery.(Photo: Tyler Whetstone/USA TODAY NETWORK-TENNESSEE)

In December, Old North Knoxville businesses said they’d been affected by the closed underpass. Old Gray Cemetery Executive Director Ruthie Kuhlman said the city’s homeless population had begun populating the cemetery more frequently, causing issues like damaging tombstones,camping out along the cemetery’s border walls and leaving clothes, sleeping bags, human waste and needles behind.

Monday night, the Vestal Community Organization peppered city leaders with questions after they said they’ve seen an uptick in their neighborhood’s homeless population since the city closed the space under the bridge.

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Knoxville Police Department officer Thomas Clinton answers questions during the Vestal Community Organization's monthly meeting at the South Knoxville Community Center on Monday, March 11, 2019. Clinton, who does homeless outreach on behalf of the department, addressed South Knoxville residents' concerns regarding the homeless. At left, reflected on the mirror is Michael Dunthorn, Knoxville's homeless program coordinator.(Photo: Saul Young/News Sentinel)

Michael Dunthorn, the city’s program coordinator for the Office on Homelessness said Monday it’s unclear if there’s an increase in Vestal.

He said he had calls from people concerned about the homeless population before the “day park” was created and he’s had some afterward, and that it’s hard to tell.

“Again, some of it could be (from the closure) and some of it is changes in the weather, changes in (where) people move around,” Dunthorn said. “So, to me it’s more about getting to the issue and addressing it.”